Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
It was always about a career for Henry
He knew he could play, but switching to the ‘other side’ helped him believe he was good enough
Cricket writer ZAAHIER ADAMS caught up with “Mr Cricket” Omar Henry to reflect on his journey with the World No 1 status.
However, we are now right at the crossroads that if we make the wrong decisions, we could struggle and drop a few places quite quickly across all three formats. Should Cricket South Africa revert to a system of 11 provinces instead of its current six franchise system? I used this philosophy back when we adopted the six franchise system. We’ve just had influx of players – almost 75% of the population – that were denied the opportunity of playing this wonderful game previously and we’re reducing the amount of teams.
So how can you reduce the amount of opportunities if that is the situation? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Let me put it years old and he planted the seed that I was good enough to “make it” abroad and play county cricket. All I needed to do was play three consecutive years. If I had gone when I was 15, opportunities could have come my way when I was 18, 19.
I left the country at 24 and fortunately, after my first full year abroad in 1978, I got a call from Scotland where I could play for Scotland. I didn’t know there was cricket in Scotland! But after two weekends up there, I felt this was a great opportunity and then I fell in love with the people and the place and stayed there for 13 years!
That was my dilemma. It was NEVER about playing for South Africa. It was a career. To answer your question, I have no regrets and I would do it again. fontein of all places?”
They’ve never given me an answer, but it made them think because they kept coming. Eventually, the answer I gave them was “speak to my wife”. “If you can convince my wife that she can live the same way as she lives here in Cape Town with my two daughters, no different, then we can talk.” Play-
To spend a day in the “coloured” Western Province dressing-room as a youngster, all I am going to say is “good luck!” Equally, to spend a day at Newlands in the WP dressing-room at the time, again I say, “good luck!” That was my academy, because there you learn how to cope, to survive, and how to deal with issues and still be successful.
ing my cricket was my livelihood, and I probably wasn’t going to spend much time in Bloem, so I could cope. But how were they going to cope? I had spoken to my wife, though, about it so when they convinced her, I was ready to go.
I had developed enough experience by then to handle whatever was going to come my way. I think my apprenticeship in dealing with whatever situations might arise in the dressing-room had been served already. To spend a day in the “coloured” Western Province dressing-room as a youngster, all I am going to say is “good luck!” Equally, to spend a day at Newlands in the WP dressingroom at the time, again I say, “good luck!” That was my academy, because there you learn how to cope, to survive, and how to deal with issues and still be successful. Did you see the irony in that at the 1992 World Cup you, as a leftarm spinner and only player of colour, received limited opportunities, and that at the 2015 World Cup, the only black African player in the Proteas squad was a left-arm spinner and received no game time at all? When I went to the World Cup I was 40 years old. But again, I had to deal with selection issues. I dealt with it. I think I was capable of dealing with it.
There were pitches where I should have played and I wasn’t selected. At the back of my mind, I knew I would get an opportunity on pitches that were not conducive to my type of bowling. But I knew I had to be ready and I prepared myself accordingly. For me, that was battle No 1.
I might have lost the war, but I wasn’t going to lose the battle. The lesson I learnt from that is that as South Africans, our biggest challenge is change. The way we played at the (2015) World Cup. We struggled to the semi-finals; we had a good team to win the competition if I look at the opposition. For me, 2015 was possibly our best opportunity to win a World Cup than all the World Cups we played in. It wasn’t the capabilities of the team, but rather its battle to change its mindset. As national convenor of selectors, you were instrumental in the appointment of Graeme Smith as Proteas captain in 2003. How did you come to this decision? There was a time in my career after I stopped playing that I went to Johannesburg to conduct some spin clinics with Harry Shapiro.
There was a 13-year-old boy who used to come and bat (laughs). He just loved batting. He would bat against the spinners in the morning, and then he would come back in the afternoon and bat some more.
That’s how I got to know Graeme. And then when he came to Western Province from Gauteng, and I was the coach at Boland, he was just scoring runs galore. He even thought he was a bowler! He was tossing up those donkey drops and put people on the boundary and took wickets and won games for Province.
From there you could see there was a self- belief and there was a presence and a will to succeed. I was national convenor of selectors when the time came for new leadership and his name came up. I had to look back as reference to what I knew about him and I said let’s meet him. When we met, and the way he answered the questions we posed, I was like “gee whiz, is this kid really 21, 22 years old?” because the answers he gave were very impressive. It probably hit him later after he was handed the captaincy, but history will tell you that we made the correct decision. Can you identify the hottest young talent at the Cape Cobras right now? I think there are quite a few. Someone I didn’t know was (Wayne) Parnell. But having seen first hand his work rate, his professionalism, his motivation … he stands out for me. He can be a genuine allrounder. There is work to be done, but he definitely has the right attributes. Does Proteas Test spinner Dane Piedt excite you? When I saw him the very first time, I saw something. It was ironic that I was on that trip to Dubai a few years back now where we took a group of youngsters that consisted of Piedt, Beuran ( Hendricks), ( Yaseen) Vallie, Omphile (Ramela), Dane (Paterson) who were all on that trip.
When we came home, we conveyed the message that this group of players is the future of Cobras cricket. Beuran was the first to play for South Africa from this group, Piedtie has now too, and Ompi and Patto are well on their way and I’m sure Vallie will come through too. I am very excited because this lot is going to take Cobras cricket forward. Tell us your favourite Eddie “Bunter” Barlow story? We were actually very good mates. But we had our fair share of run- ins ( laughs). There was one occasion where we were playing against Transvaal at the Wanderers. There was a belief that Hobbers ( Denys Hobson) didn’t bowl well at the Wanderers, which brought me into the game more. I had batted well in the game trying to save the followon after Transvaal had a made a big score. I probably had the best bowling analysis too. To cut a long story short, Sunday was usually our off day with the game continuing on the Monday.
So, I open the Sunday newspaper to see that I had been dropped for the next week’s game at Newlands. I storm into Eddie’s room obviously wanting to know what’s going on with this report.
The two of us get into a huge argument, where he finishes off with and says: “You go back to B team and if you can score a century and take five wickets, then you can come back into the dressing-room.” This was, obviously, way off the mark of what I asked, but I took it on-board and I remember going to play for the B side where I got a “five-for” and a century, so I walked into the dressing- room and said: “That’s what you wanted, I’ve gone and did it!” I think that brought us even close together and we went to on become even greater friends. We had lots of respect for each other. He definitely became a mentor. How did you get the nickname “Pang”? Lambie! (Allan Lamb) It was a fantastic team. Full of charac- ters. Eddie Barlow, Hylton Ackerman, Peter Swart, Gavin Pfuhl, Stephen Jeffries, Peter Kirsten, Garth le Roux. It was a great team to play with. Lambie, being from Wynberg Boys’ High, being from Cape Town, he knew the Muslim community. It just stuck from there. What is the best chirp you have heard on the cricket field? I remember coming down here with Free State and a young Hansie Cronje was standing down there at the Willows End and I saw the debacle going on down there.
Hansie came running up to captain Joubert Strydom at the end of the over and says, “I can’t field down there. They just abuse me. Send him (pointing to me) down there. He knows them!” So, I go down there and I just stood there and I think they didn’t know what to say to me at first because it went rather quiet for a while.
That was until I turned my back when one guy shouted: “Hey, Pang, hoekom flie die voels onnestebo in Bloemfontein?” (Why do the birds, fly upside down in Bloemfontein?).
I didn’t have a clue, so I didn’t want to turn around again. Eventually, after asking me two further times, I turned around to ask him what he was actually saying. He says to me: “Omdat daar is f****n niks om op die grond te sien nie!”(“Because there is f*****g nothing to see on the ground!” (Laughs out loud) Taliep Petersen or Bles Bridges? Taliep. Has to be! I actually saw his District Six show in Scotland. I was the only one laughing in the theatre! Best ball you have ever bowled? It has to be the one to Kepler. Loved it. I cleaned him up through the gate at St George’s Park. That was a special wicket. If there was anything you could change in the game? South Africa’s approach to cricket. Play positive, fearless cricket.